There’s a reason Paris is one of the most popular cities among travelers. Known as the “City of Light” or the “City of Love,” the streets of Paris overflow with culture, art, beauty, and history. Whether searching out Monet’s Water Lilies at Musée de l’Orangerie, climbing the many steps of Sacré-Cœur, standing before the Eiffel Tower in awe, or searching out the best crepes along the Seine, Paris is a city that captures the hearts of millions ever year.

• The Eiffel Tower was supposed to be a temporary installation, intended to stand for 20 years after being built for the 1889 World Fair.
• Paris was originally a Roman City called “Lutetia.”
• It’s believed that Paris only has one stop sign in the entire city.
• A flat in Paris was left unoccupied under lock and key for 70 years, but the rent was paid every month; when the renter passed away, a painting by Boldini valued at more than $2 million was found inside.
• There are at least three replicas of the Statue of Liberty in Paris. The most famous of them exists on an island in the middle of the Seine and looks towards her sister statue in New York.
• The main bell of the Notre Dame Cathedral is named Emmanuel and weighs over 13 tonnes.
• There are 6,100 rues – or streets – in Paris; the shortest one, Rue des Degrés, is just 5.75 metres long and can be found in the 2nd arrondissement.

Before deciding on a schedule for your stay, you will have to ask yourself which things are a must for you. Is your priority to explore the city? If so, we advise you to check out well-known guides such as Le guide du routard or the Lonely Planet, which provide optimized self-guided tours ranging from 1 to several days, enabling you to take in all the must-see sights in a short amount of time. You can also use the Paris l’Open Tour (tour buses) which cover four routes across the capital all day with commentary in 8 languages. From 9.30 am to 6.30 pm they travel between many stops, picking up and dropping off every 10 to 25 minutes. Otherwise, you can always do what takes your fancy and simply explore the town on foot, or climb aboard one of the legendary “bateaux-mouches” which offer a magnificent view of the city from the Seine.

Paris, city and capital of France, situated in the north-central part of the country. People were living on the site of the present-day city, located along the Seine River some 233 miles (375 km) upstream from the river’s mouth on the English Channel (La Manche), by about 7600 BCE. The modern city has spread from the island (the Île de la Cité) and far beyond both banks of the Seine.

Paris occupies a central position in the rich agricultural region known as the Paris Basin, and it constitutes one of eight départements of the Île-de-France administrative region. It is by far the country’s most important centre of commerce and culture. Area city, 41 square miles (105 square km); metropolitan area, 890 square miles (2,300 square km). Pop. (2012) city, 2,265,886; (2015 est.) urban agglomeration, 10,858,000.